


Growing Pains

by Oxygen_Thief



Category: Fatal Fury, King of Fighters
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Terry seems weird and lonely sometimes, Two bis bein dudes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-13
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2021-01-30 02:14:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21420508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oxygen_Thief/pseuds/Oxygen_Thief
Summary: Two men bond over beer and lost youth.
Relationships: Terry Bogard/Joe Higashi
Comments: 7
Kudos: 25





	Growing Pains

“Wanna know what happened to him next?” Rock asked excitedly, his jacket flowing around his torso sporadically as he turned around to face Terry and Joe, who both jumped from where they sat at the dinner table. 

Managing to make the grin on his face grow wider, Joe raised his fist in the air and took a guess about the next beat in Rock’s story. “Didja kick his butt?”

Terry eyed Rock’s expression past his glass of beer and inwardly smiled. The middle schooler was half astounded that Joe had predicted the story, and half excited to continue the tale. 

“Yeah I did! I used that new kick Terry showed me and--!” Rock stopped stumbling through the words of his story to do a high kick in the air, albeit with wobbly form and hasty breaths, “--and once the loser was down, I gave the girl her lunchbox back!”

Terry made no effort to quiet the boy in his care while he laughed loudly (joined by Joe) despite the thin walls of their apartment complex. Rock almost never moved around so much in a social setting, but they were home and it was just him, Terry and Joe, so he figured the boy felt comfortable enough to open up with people so close. Anyone else, though, and Rock might have been quiet as always, sitting in the corner with his unruly hair shadowing his eyes.

Joe chugged the rest of his beer in honor of Rock’s victory, and Terry ruffled the boy’s hair as he sat back down at the rickety table, much to the kid’s embarrassment. 

Terry got up from the table to get Rock another glass of milk as Joe asked, “So, did you get the girl’s number afterwards?”

“No way!” Rock nearly screamed, his voice cracking along with his composure. Joe simply cackled. “She’s just my friend!”

“Didn’t you say she shared her candy bar with you after?” Terry asked as he handed Rock a glass of milk, and the boy only stared at his knees. 

“Well . . . yeah, she did,” Rock whispered, mostly to himself. 

“I remember you doing something similar, Terry,” Joe said, gently swatting Terry’s shoulder with the back of his hand. “We were in the shittier--”

“--language around the kid, Joe,” Terry interrupted,

“--oh, uh, sorry!” Joe flushed a little, rubbing the back of his head. “Anyway, we were in the cruddier part of Southtown and this one idiot was yelling at random girls in the bar we were at. Terry walked up to the guy--”

Terry stopped Joe again with a gloved hand on the guy’s shoulder, which Rock giggled at, still invested in the story. “That was Andy, Joe. Remember? He walked up to the moron.”

“Oh--oh yeah!” Joe corrected. Terry thought the sight was funny; Joe going on one of his dumb stories that he hadn’t gotten any better at since their early twenties, his features exagerrated under the dingy kitchen lightbulb. "So Andy walked up to the guy and asked him to stop. He tried throwing a punch and we ended up kicking every jerk in the bar into next week!”

Terry leaned over to Rock and said, “That kind of thing used to happen every other week. Try to avoid it though, okay?”

Rock nodded absentmindedly, still staring Joe, astonished. A moment later the boy yawned and stood up from his chair and began walking to the hall.

“Good night. School tomorrow,” was all Rock said, his voice fading as he walked toward his room.

“Goodnight, bud,” Terry replied. “Brush your teeth, alright?”

Terry thought he heard a soft “okay” while Joe pat him on the back. There was a stupid jackass smile on the guy’s face and he wasn’t even drunk.

Joe helped himself to another beer from the fridge smothered in coupons and pictures. “All this Dad stuff seems to be workin’ out for you, man. Glad I came over to check up on you!” He wrapped his arm around Terry’s neck, letting the man grab the bottle beside his cheek where the icy glass shook his senses at the touch.

Terry lingered on the feeling of Joe’s hand sliding across his shoulders, watching the guy wander to the couch, throwing his body on top of the hole-covered cushions like he was lying down on a hotel mattress. 

“You say that like you’re a judge,” Terry joked before wrapping his lips around the new bottle and taking a swig.

He saw Joe’s muscled arm wave nonchalantly above the couch. “Ahhh, half of parenting is feedback, I’m sure.”

“So yours never got any?”

“Hey!” Joe exclaimed, his luscious hair following him like an unrestrained scarf as he sat up to stare Terry in the face. Suddenly remembering that Rock was only down the hall, he lowered his voice to a sharp hiss. “Asshole!” The man still came undone in a fit of strangled laughter, and so did Terry.

Terry decided to join Joe on the couch, and the two continued their quiet banter while half-watching MMA on TV. They entered slouched positions with their legs on the coffee table, a couple more beers down the road, when Joe thought of a question.

“Hey,” he started, his eyes every-so-slightly worn with early-thirties fatigue and alcohol, “whatever happened with you and Blue Mary? That woman was great for ya.”

Terry’s  _ whole  _ night wasn’t ruined, but a vase perfectly intact with a hole in it still had a hole. Nonetheless he masked his reaction with another sip of beer. “Eh. Didn’t work out. She wanted to leave when I wanted to stay here in Southtown; all that.”

“Oh,” Joe said distantly, looking past the blood splattering on the TV. “Sorry about that. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I don’t know . . . I told Andy, but I guess I didn’t tell you ‘cause you were busy or I forgot.”

The silence between them was heavy and the fight on the screen was getting on Terry’s nerves.

“What about that Lily girl?” Terry asked. He tilted his head to look at Joe, who slid further down the couch and made something like a coughing sound. “You guys were a cute couple. Still see her?”

Joe’s hair fluffed from side to side as he shook his head, and he sighed. “No . . . Billy gave her a lot of grief about me. I left her so she didn’t have to put up with that drama anymore.” Taking an extra long chug of beer with his eyes closed, Terry caught a glimpse of it from the corner of his eye and felt guilt. He was weirdly handsome doing that.

After a few long moments, Joe said, “Sorry I never told you.”

“It’s alright, man,” Terry assured. “We don’t talk much anymore, do we?”

The bright lights in the apartment and the darkness outside was making Terry sleepy, the beer certainly not helping. He feared in the back of his mind that Joe was going to leave soon, but the sigh they shared at the same time gave him the answer he wanted. They could be tired and drunk together and that was okay. 

“It’s weird,” Joe said softly, motioning his whole body to face Terry’s, getting the man’s attention. “Back when I met you and Andy, I never thought there’d be a day where we weren’t doin’ somethin’.” 

“What the hell are you talking about?” Terry chided, pulling a grin to let Joe know that he was just kidding.

“I mean,” Joe continued as he stared at the wall, “it’s like I would wake up every day and we’d be somewhere else, you know? Like we’d be in France one day, Tokyo the next and then the New Zealand mountains or whatever.” Terry didn’t respond, letting the silence hang since Joe seemed like he had more to say. “It was so much fun, and I didn’t notice when it ended.”

“I don’t think it really has,” Terry pitched, loving the naive look of surprise on Joe’s face. He, too, rolled over on the couch to face Joe completely. They were maybe a foot apart. “I think a journey can sit, and get back up again after a rest.”

Joe laughed softly. “When did you get so smart? That’s Andy’s job.”

“Someone’s always gotta be for you, Higashi.” Terry inched a bot closer and Joe smiled wider with the beer on his breath smelling stronger. “When did you let yourself get so lonely? That’s my job.”

“Me? Lonely?” Joe asked, his voice a high-pitched whisper. Terry was close enough to stare at the soft creases in Joe’s lips, so close that he didn’t have time to react when Joe rolled over and threw his torso over Terry’s. “There’s no way I was gonna be lonely when you called me and got this close.”

“Did you have a feeling?” Terry asked, placing his hands on a pair of hips he was curious he never put his hands on before. 

“A  _ feeling _ ?” Joe repeated sarcastically with some black hair falling over his eyes, but not before grazing Terry’s nose. “I’m Joe Higashi, certified genius. I saw the damn future, pretty boy.”

“Use those lips for something smart, then.”

When Joe crashed his mouth on his, Terry wasn’t sure, but for only a second. He tasted ten years of untapped potential spilling like a waterfall first, and beer second. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fic I've posted on here! Feedback would be wonderful. Thanks.


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